Liberty's Plenette Pierson drives to the basket against the Indiana Fever during a WNBA basketball game at Prudential Center. (July 13, 2013) Photo Credit: Jason DeCrow

NEWARK - In his pregame news conference before Thursday's game against the Chicago Sky, Bill Laimbeer spoke of getting his team to sustain quality play for an entire game and not having one quarter when "we're the worst team in the league."

Apparently the message didn't get through to Laimbeer's players. The Sky rode a hot-shooting first quarter to a 75-55 win over the struggling Liberty (6-9) in front of 12,858 at the Prudential Center.

The Liberty outscored the Sky 44-41 the rest of the way, but the damage was already done.

"We turned the ball over. The first couple of possessions they made shots, so we found ourselves at the first timeout down 9-0," Cappie Pondexter said of the first quarter. "From that point it kind of went downhill."

Kelsey Bone was one of the few bright spots for the Liberty. The 6-4 rookie forward finished with 11 points, shooting 5-for-8, and had eight rebounds. Plenette Pierson added 11 points and Pondexter had nine points, shooting 2-for-11.

It was the third double-figure scoring effort in five games for Bone, who had 10 points and nine rebounds in the Liberty's loss to Indiana on Saturday.